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Monday, 30 July 2012

I did say that I might not craft during the Olympics but after two days I gave in. There is no way that I would miss Hels' Sunday Stampers - Week 216 (http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk/).

I also wanted to enter into the brand new challenge (http://crafty-emblies.blogspot.co.uk/) over at Crafty Emblies. There is a £10 prize to spend in the new Crafty Emblies shop which is definitely worth checking out!

In addition to these, over at Simon Says (http://simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.co.uk/) they are running a challenge based on 'What do you say?', words or sentiments that have a message. The fabulous prize is a £50 gift voucher from Simon Says, so I am entereing that too.

The challenge over at Sunday Stampers Week 216 is Gold (in honour of the Olympics, but you can do whatever you like as long as there is some stamping) and the challenge at Crafty Emblies is Flora and Fauna so I combined the two and came up with this 8" x 8" canvas:

I love working with this size of canvas and I have used my two favourite colours again! I painted the background in Mocha acrylic paint and overstamped in Aqua paint dabber with Sam Poole's bubble wrap stamp. I edged the canvas with gold mega flake from Indigoblu, added a gold die cut corner topped with a turquoise pearl. The bottom section is corrugated card which I have brushed Aqua paint dabber over and then filled the 'waves' with Viva Inka gold paste.

The birdcage is cut from gold mirri card and I left the door open so that the butterfly could escape. The flowers are cut from the Tattered Floral die, the flower pieces were wet, scrunched and shaped, left to dry and then dabbed with Inka Gold paste.

The butterflies are stamped with Hero Arts stamp/die set. Each butterfly is coloured with Distress Inks and then edged in gold mirri card, die cut from the set and this gives a lovely gold border (sorry it does not show up well in the pic). Finally I added a quote which says 'Of course you can fly, for your DREAMS have wings' which I think applies to all the Olympic athletes competing in this year's games.

Good luck to all the athletes competing in the Olympics, we are honoured to have the event in our Country this time.

If you do have a look I hope you will leave me a message, I do love to read them all and I always try to return the compliment. Thanks for looking, crafty hugs, Anne xx

The challenge is to use Kraft Glassine paper by Tim Holtz and alter it according to the directions on page 39 of the Compendium of Curiosities Volume 2. Out of respect to Tim I cannot tell you the details of how I made the flower other than to say I used the Tattered Flowers die to cut it out.

The background tag has been covered with Worn Lipstick DI and then I spritzed and flicked to give a mottled background, the edges were aged using Black Soot DI. The large birdcage is by Kaisercraft and I coloured it with Black Soot DI. The small cage and bird were metal charms from my stash and I coated them with Adirondack Snow Cap Mixative and then, from a tip I picked up from Wendy Vecchi blog today, I coated them with Glue and Seal to protect them. I added a small pearl brad to the flower and a piece of vintage ribbon coloured with Fired Brick Distress Stain to the top of the tag..

The challenge closes tomorrow and I know I am entering by the seat of my pants but the prize is a $25 gift certfificate from the amazing Funkie Junkie boutique (if you have not visited here you really should) who can be found at (http://www.zibbet.com/TheFunkieJunkie).

Thanks for looking, I hope you will leave me a comment, I really enjoy reading them all and will always try to return the compliments. Crafty hugs, Anne xx

Yes, it's that time again when we share our desks, warts and all, to the world courtesy of our hostess Julia over at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk/. If you want to join in then check out Julia's blog for details.

Short and sweet this week. Thank you for all the lovely birthday messages last week, I had a lovely day. I have posted three times since last week so have very little to show other than commission cards, which are currently under wraps. So here is my desk this week:

I know, it's a mess, but I am just finishing off a little treasure box, the glue is still drying so I just left everything where it was and went to bed. My canvas on the shelf is going to my neighbours today, we are going for dinner and the colours are just right for their house. I did post the canvas a couple of days ago if you want to see it fully. My Tim Holtz Ideaology is now all neatly stored in my little plastic organiser and you might just be able to see a new die/stamp set that I got from Sizzix/Hero Arts - more butterflies - yay!

I thought I would show you a card I made from the left over butterflies I have been doing cards with this week. I had a light bulb moment, I am going to do one butterfly in each of the distress ink colours and put them on my wall for reference. They will look like the ones on my card below.

That's it from me, if you do call I hope you will be kind enough to leave me a message. I will do my best to visit as many desks as possible and will return the compliment if you visit me. Crafty hugs, Anne xx

PS - whilst the Olympics are on I may not get to as many desks as usual - sorry, but this is a once in a lifetime event for us here in the UK (for my age group anyway - lol).

Monday, 23 July 2012

Here I am posting two days on the run, but when I saw the challenge over at Simon Says I thought it might be fun to enter. This is my first time entering this challenge so I am a wee bit nervous. The challenge is to create something for the girls, something feminine and the challenge is called Hey Girl.

When I was a little girl, many moons ago, my Mum (in the late 50's) had a pair of pink glasses with a big flower on the side and what I thought was a real diamond on the side. She had wonderful blue eyes and always wore bright lipstick so this piece is designed around how my Mum looked in those days.

I have made a very chunky ATC from a block of wood 3.1/2" x 2.1/2" by 1.1/2" thick. I have made a few of these now and anyone who visits me regularly may remember the others. Here is the finished result:

I painted the block and the bead feet and top with black acrylic paint. I took a large piece of card, covered it with picked raspberry distress ink, spritzed and flicked with Perfect Pearls and then overstamped with a chicken wire stamp which give the background a slight crackled look. I cut the pieces to size, edged them with black distress marker and glued them to the block leaving a little of the black paint showing underneath.

The stamp is by Inkylicious and is my current favourite. I stamped in black archival ink, coloured the eye with peacock feathers DI and lips with picked raspberry DI. The lips were then coated in glossy Accents. The glasses were cut from a pattern I made for a ATC swap at WOYWW. I coloured the glasses with picked raspberry and black DIs, added a small flower from a flower punch, then applied glossy accents over the whole of the glasses before adding a sparkly gem. On the back of the block I did the same but left the glasses plain black and added fired brick DI to the lips before coating them both with glossy accents.

For the sides of the block I added some spotted vinyl flowers from my stash and added sparkly gems to bling them up. The feet are wooden beads and for the top I added a pink Swarowski crystal to a black wooden bead. Here is a side view:

Sunday, 22 July 2012

Thank you to all my new Followers, thank you so much for joining me, it is so lovely to have your company.

This week over at Sunday Stampers (http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk/) the challenge is More Than Words where the wonderful Hels Sheridan has asked us to do something with more than one word, using a sentiment etc. I am still in butterfly mode at the moment so I thought I would do another canvas and here is my entry:

The canvas is 8" x 8" and I covered it with Hazlenut Adirondack paint dabber and then used an Aqua paint dabber on my Sam Poole bubble wrap stamp and dabbed this around the canvas. I then took the lid of the paint dabber, dabbed it into the paint and made the circles in each of the same two colours. I used my finger and dabbed some Aqua around the edge of the canvas and streaked some here and there on the canvas to break up the Hazelnut. I then painted the mesh lace with the Aqua paint dabber and attached it across the bottom. The flower is made from Tim Holtz pastel stack and the Tattered Flowers Bigz die. I wet the pieces and scrunched them up, dried them with my heat tool and then edged the petals with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink. I added a large pearl brad to the centre. The stalk and leaves were made from plain white card covered in Peeled Paint Distress Stain.

The butterflies are from the Wendy Vecchi Botanical Art stamp set and I stamped onto plain white card and coloured in Broken China DI. I added the bakers twine to hold the mesh onto the canvas. The wonderful sentiment was written by Rabindranoth Tagore.

I would like to take just a moment to thank some lovely blog friends. Rita and I exchanged birthday gifts as our birthdays were very close together. Thank you again Rita for my beautiful card and gift, I will treasure them always. Rita has shown her card to me on her blog and it is well worth a look. Next is Sandee who sent me a beautiful card all the way from the USA, I was really chuffed to get mail from there! Next are two wonderful ladies Buttons (with whom I share a birthday) and Shoshi sent me beautiful cards too. All these ladies have inspired me and kept me motivated and encouraged to try new things. I know I keep saying it but Crafters are the kindest, most caring and generous people I have ever met. I now have four beautiful hand made cards from people other than the Grandchildren! Thank you all so very much.

Thursday, 19 July 2012

The Penny Black Challenge (http://pennybfriendssaturdaychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/) has now moved to it's new monthly spot and I for one am very happy about that because it gives me more time, rather than rushing my entry every week. The challenge for July is Summertime (and the living is easy) and this is my entry:

I used the Penny Black stamp called Lazy Days and coloured him with Promarkers and added some background colour with TH Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass and Peeled Paint. The sunburst was embossed on TH coredinations card using the Sun Rays folder by Craft Concepts. I matted and layered onto TH red cordinations card, added some vintage red ribbon and a sunflower charm and used computer generated words to finish off. The edges of the card are edged with red chalk ink to give a bit of definition.

If you do stop by I hope you will leave me a comment, I always do my best to return the compliment.

Wednesday, 18 July 2012

It's that time of the week again when we show our desks to the world, courtesy of the lovely Julia over at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk/ . If you would like to share your desk then hop over and visit Julia for full instructions.

Today I have loads of goodies on my desk! I have a birthday later this week and very kind relatives gave me money to buy crafting goodies, I have not opened my non craft pressies just yet, that would be so rude. Here is some of my new stash and a couple of other bits:

On the left is a roundy thing to hold my blending tools (from my lovely OH), a set of Darkroom Door London stamps (from my DS), in the front is a stamp courtesy of my win over at Penny Black Challenge last week (I have already had a play). At the back is a plastic storage tub holder complete with tubs (which I have already filled with my Ideology and other charms etc. In the front on the pink paper is my purchase (courtesy of DD) from the Ribbon Girls (http://www.ribbongirl.co.uk/) as advised by my wonderful blog friend and amazingly talented Kath over at http://kath-allthatglitter.blogspot.co.uk/ . Kath is the lady responsible for me starting my blog in the first place. The Ribbon Girl's stuff is amazing and their delivery time is second to none!

Right at the front on the right is a skull and crossbones card/mini album that I am about to send to my soon to be SIL, who loves all things macabre (and this is about as macabre as I can get!). Oh yes, you will also see a little pink drawer knob too, courtesy of an antiques emporium I visited yesterday. This will eventually go on one of my many wooden ATC blocks that I so love doing.

A huge thank you to all my latest Followers too, I really appreciate you taking the time to follow me.

Well I think that's enough from lucky old me, hope you enjoyed the peek and I am looking forward to visiting as many of you as possible. If you do visit I hope you will leave me a message, I love to read them and will always try my best to return the compliment. Happy WOYWW, Crafty hugs, Anne x

Sunday, 15 July 2012

The challenge over at Sunday Stampers is Embellishments where we have been asked to use up some of our bits and pieces. The challenge Hostess is the wonderful Hels Sheridan at http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk/ .

I really thoroughly enjoyed making this piece and getting out loads of stuff that I have stashed away in corners of drawers and boxes, including my jewellery findings which I have not touched for years! I opted to make a 6 x 6 wall hanging from a piece of mountboard and this is the result:

I covered the mountboard with Peacock Feather DI and added some Shabby Shutters DI. I did the time honoured spritz and flick technique by Tim Holtz - love that technique - and left it to dry (the technique is outlined in detail on page 42 of Tim's Compendium of Curiosities Vol 2). I then stamped TH's butterflies from the papillon set, stamped them again on white card, coloured them in with Distress Markers and decoupaged them up over the originals. I filled the little TH jar with lots and lots of watch parts which I have had for ever, sealed the jar with glossy accents and hung it at the top along with a silver coloured butterfly. I added two clips to the top which will hold the wire for hanging (or ribbon - have not decided which yet). I took the metal name plate and coloured it with blue and green alcohol inks to match the colours in the background and attached it with brads. The word says timeless which is intended to refer to the watch pieces and the timeless beauty of the butterflies.

In my jewellery findings I found some lovely blue beads, some silver coloured spacers and some head pins which I assembled and attached along the bottom of the mountboard. The slightly darker line above the bead trim is glitter, I had originally put a stip of lace across the bottom but didn't like it but I was left with ultra sticky tape so I put some Martha Stewart glitter on, then rubbed as much as possible off - I am not really a glitter fan, except at Christmas.

Friday, 13 July 2012

Thank you again to my new followers, I am so happy to have you along on my crafting journey, I have learned so much from other crafters whilst I have been blogging and if I can share my experience with others then it is all so worthwhile.

Unusually for me, this is my third blog post in as many days! There is a reason for it. In Craft Stamper magazine this month the free stamp was a butterfly designed by IndigoBlu, one of my favourite stamp companies. I got an email yesterday asking subscribers to send in a piece of their work using the butterfly stamp. As coincidence would have it I was working on my third wooden piece in a row and I used that very same stamp! How spooky is that........

I should note that working with this size block of wood was inspired by the wonderful Hels Sheridan
(http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk/) who did a block for a workshop that was attended by a fellow blog friend Rachel and I. The block that Hels did was in the afternoon class, which we did not attend! I for one, was gutted. I got my blocks from that favourite auction site but Hels' hubby cut hers for her. They measure approx. 2.1/2" x 3.1/2" and are approx 1.1/2" deep. Anyway here is my latest wood block creation:

I absolutely love working with these wooden blocks. I painted the block with pale blue acrylic paint and then ran Peacock Feathers DI all around the edges. The BoBunny paper was cut to size and also edged in the same DI and glued down. The words are stamped in black archival and they are from a Tim Holtz word set (Good Thoughts). The butterflies are coloured in Squeezed Lemonade and Peacock Feather DIs. I added some jewellery wire for the antennae. The feet on the piece are painted wooden beads and the knob at the top is made from three ceramic beads held together with glue and a head pin. There are more butterflies on the back but this time I left the sides bare - no spiders to scare people this time!

Thursday, 12 July 2012

A big thank you and hello to my latest followers, I am so glad to have you along and hope that you will find something of interest on my fairly new blog.

Well, I cannot tell you how many times I have started this tag and had to throw away the result! I love the technique with the alcohol inks but I don't have one of those cans that blows air so I had to improvise.......by that I mean I took a trip to Macdonalds and got a straw (and yes I did buy something first - lol - they do make nice tea). I huffed and puffed and blew and blew some more and this was the end result that I liked well enough to put on my tag!

I had to do a British theme (and why not with all the exciting things this year) because I do not have a Statue of Liberty stamp. How lovely that we share a red, white a blue tradition with the USA. I followed all the other processes that Tim used except for the picture and the ribbon but I had this very appropriate ribbon in my stash so used it. I stamped the Papermania Big Ben and the Artemio flag and bus onto card, coloured and cut them out and then placed them on the tag. There are two little charms on the top, one is an umbrella to signify all the rain we have had and a crown to represent the Queen's jubilee, so I think I covered all the bases!

As ever, I am not totally happy with it but I do like the effect of the alcohol inks in the background, looking a little bit like fireworks. I found it quite a challenge but I really enjoyed it, with the possible exception of all the huffing and puffing, I really must invest in one of those cans. I added 2012 to the flag and Olympics to the bus to celebrate our forthcoming event - not long now.......can't wait!
If you visit, I do hope you will leave me a comment, I love to read them all and will aways try to return the compliment, if at all possible. Enjoy what is left of the week........Crafty hugs, Anne xx

Wednesday, 11 July 2012

It does not seem like a whole week has passed since we were last here, making the most of our Julia's group of Woywwers from around the world. If you want to see what Julia and the rest of us get up to then please have a look at Julia's blog for an explanation (http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk/).

I have had a very busy crafty week, I won the Penny Black challenge last Saturday for which I am absolutely delighted!! I made a creation from a block of wood and another creation for Sunday Stampers, (both of which I posted on my blog), a cameo necklace and I have made a start on my Tim Tag for July. I don't have a blowy thing so I had to resort to the old huffing and puffing, not happy with the result so I may have to break the habit of a lifetime and resort to visiting a Macdonalds to get a couple of straws which may or may not help. So my desk is littered with stamps and inks to finish off the tag, which will have a London/Olympics theme as, regretably, I do not have a Statue of Liberty stamp. Here is my desk:

I made some new purchases this week, the alcohol inks required for Tim's Tag, some Wendy Vecchi Blossom Bucket glasses, some silver Frantage, a couple of paint dabbers and some lace on a lovely spool.

Keeping it short, so as not to upset our hostess Julia. I am looking forward to having a good look around this week and visiting as many of you as possible. Happy WOYWW, Crafty hugs, Anne xx

Monday, 9 July 2012

Welcome to my latest followers, I am so pleased that you have joined me!

The challenge over at Sunday Stampers this week which is run by the very talented Hels Sheridan is Dream, Hels can be found at http://pinkleart.blogspot.co.uk/ and if you pop over there you will see Hels' fabulous tag creation.

I am still enjoying working with wood and so my entry this week is a wooden double arch frame. I don't have any dream type stamps but I have had a set of North American Indian stamps by Creative Expressions (called Native Americal Spirit) for ages and in the set is a dream catcher. I have a real dream catcher and love it, they are so delicate and have the most wonderful feathers. Here is what I made:

I painted the base with black acrylic paint, I covered plain card with Spiced Marmalade and Wild Honey DIs and then used the spritz and flick technique to add some interest. I cut the pieces to size and glued them in place after distressing around the edges with Black Soot DI. I stamped all the elements in black Archival ink and then stamped the dream catcher again onto plain card, coloured with DIs and paper pieced onto the stamped image. I put a Tim Holtz eyelet screw in the top, on one side and added a sun, a moon, and a star charm to dangle over the front. At the back I attached a beautiful turquoise feather which you can see peeking out. The sentiment reads 'Time is a healer, a friend, a maker of Dreams'.

On the other side, which you cannot see I have stamped a Native American Indian on one side and a beautiful gecko on the other, all from the Native stamp set. I am not showing these simply because they do not fit the challenge.

If you do visit I hope you will leave me a comment, I love to read them and I will always do my best to return the compliments. Take care all. Crafty hugs, Anne x

Saturday, 7 July 2012

Firstly, I would like to say a big hello and welcome to my lovely new followers! I truly appreciate you coming along on this crafting journey with me.......

The title today? Well I got some new Wendy Vecchi stamps today, an early birthday present from my lovely DH and I wanted to do something different with them. A couple of months ago I attended a Hels Sheridan workshop and we made a beautiful mirror. The afternoon class, which I regret I did not attend made a little piece of art from a block of wood. I have been trying ever since to source some, they are ATC sized but about one and a half inches deep (approx 3.5 cm). I found some on Ebay!

This is what I made, this is one side:

This is the other side:

The wording says 'It's not the size of the wings, it's Believing that you can'. How true is that for a lot of us crafters?

To make it, I painted the block with black acrylic paint. I took a large piece of card and covered it with broken china and peacock feathers distress inks, spritzed with water and dabbed it lightly to create the watermark effect. I cut the card to size, glued them on, added feet (old beads painted black) and a gorgeous little crystal book knob by 7 Gypsies. The birdcage and bird were stamped with Inkylicious stamps and I coloured the bird with fired brick and spiced marmalade distress markers.The butterfly is a Hero Arts stamp which I coloured with squeezed lemonade and edged in spiced marmalade distress inks. All the stamping is done with Ranger black archival ink. The butterfly trail is made from gems from my stash. I then spritzed the whole block with perfect pearls to give it a bit of a sheen, you can't really see that in my photos but the sheen looks lovely in real life.

Just for a bit of fun, I put another stamp from one of the Wendy Vecchi sets onto the side of the block as you can see here:

I am not a lover of spiders but thought he was quite cute.

I would also like to say a big Happy Birthday to my lovely blog friend, who many of you know, RITA
(http://rmgcreations.blogspot.co.uk/) - hope you have a wonderful day my dear friend.

If you do visit I hope you will leave me a comment, I love to read them and will always do my best to return the compliment. Hope you have a good weekend and that the weather (here in the UK, but also parts of the USA) picks up! Crafty hugs, Anne x

Wednesday, 4 July 2012

This is that time of week when we show the world at large what is on our workdesks and yikes, mine is one big mess! If you want to follow along then please visit our Mistress of Ceremonies, Julia, who will tell you all, over at: http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk/

This week I have entered a few challenges and as a result my desk looks very messy indeed. I was too tired to clear up last night so this is what it looks like this morning:-

By the end of the day it will be all lovely and tidy again, my dear Son is coming to visit this weekend and my craft room doubles as a spare room - you never see the other half of it which has a lovely comfy Futon which makes into a bed.

On my desk is a drawer full of lovely flowers, my Compendium II and up on the top shelf is the article I made yesterday, still in it's photographic position. If you are interested in seeing it close up please look at yesterday's post. I really enjoyed making it although it took me well outside my comfort zone. In the foreground are four woodblocks that I got from Ebay, they are ATC sized and I am waiting for inspiration to strike! Right at the front is my drink of tea and just peeking out in the corner is an embroidery leaflet that the lovely Lynn (Doodly Bird) Holland sent to me with an order that I placed. She is very kind.

I am looking forward to seeing your desks today. If you do stop by I hope you will leave me a comment and I will do my very best to return the compliment. Happy WOYWW, Crafty hugs, Anne xx

I am late with this because I struggled to come up with anything different. I really love the Ranger Foil tape sheets so I thought I would have a go with them. This is my creation, which is certainly silver!

I covered one of Tim's boxes, from his Configurations range, in foil tape which I embossed first. I painted the rest of the box in silver acrylic paint. The sides are covered with paper from Tim's pastel pad in blue graph type paper. The leaves at the back of the box are Wendy Vecchi Art Part leaves, coloured with shabby shutters DI and then over-stamped with Dyan Revealey's stamps. The butterfly is a Hero Arts stamp, which I coloured in promarkers and then mounted onto Clearly for Art, which I then heated to mould. The antenna are made from jewellery wire. All the flowers and the corners came from Wild Orchid Crafts. The feet are made from some old wooden beads that I had in my stash.

I really enjoyed the challenge of making this, so thank you Hels and also to Anita for your inspiration, it certainly took me out of my comfort zone!

I also wish to enter this into the Compendium of Curiosities II Challenge over at:http://www.studioL3blogspot.com/. To complete my Configurations box I followed the techniques used in Tim Holts's Compendium of Curiosities Volume II pages 33 and 34, although I did only complete one box and I did it in my own style rather than the whole box! That's for another day.......

If you do visit I hope you will leave me a comment and I will always try to return the compliment. Thanks for looking. Crafty hugs, Anne x

Monday, 2 July 2012

Firstly I would also like to thank my latest followers, it means a lot to me to have you join me in my crafting exploits. I would also like to say Happy Canada Day to any fellow Canadians out there, hope you are enjoying your day.

The card is a double side stepper card, I have used a vintage lady from my picture store and printed it out onto matt photo paper. I picked up the colour in her dress and used Peacock Feathers DI to colour the fancy wings and the flourishes. I also coloured the inside of the card to match, added some paper to the side steps and a butterfly and pearls to match. I distressed the edges of the whole card with Tea Die DI to give the card a more vintage feel. The flowers on the front are also from my stash.

I think I have taken the hot metal part quite literally as you can see here:

The flower is made using Ranger foil tape sheets, which I attached to some thick white card, cut the flower using Tim Holtz tattered flower die and then embossed it with the TH metal look embossing folder. I coloured the flower and stem with alcohol inks. The central flower and gem are from my stash. I matted and layered the card with red mirri card and polkadot paper from my stash. The stamp is Penny Black's large Happy Birthday stamp. It is quite a large stamp and really needs a large card and this one is 8 inches square.

Two quite different cards, I enjoyed making them both.

If you do visit I hope you will leave me a comment, I love to read them and I always try to repay the compliment. Hope you have a lovely day. Crafty hugs, Anne x